Delta Speaker, Ochei Enmeshed in N27b, IPP Sleaze Blames Gov. Uduaghan for Abandonment of Project

 

Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Mr. Victor Ochei is once again enmeshed in the thick of a scandal rocking the state’s Independent Power Project (IPP) amounting to about 27 billion naira and located at Oghara, home town of convicted former governor of the state, Mr. James Ibori. The project was awarded by the Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s administration over three years ago to Mr. Ochei’s company, Davnotch, a firm little known to possess the expertise required for such a project and that is said to have benefited hugely from other projects of the state government.
LegisReports reliably gathered that the Speaker’s company has been mobilized with over half of the contract sum but with nothing on ground to show for the huge billions of naira collected except site clearing, a signpost and other skeletal work done several months ago.

When some elders and concerned citizens of the State had raised concerns about the project some time ago, the defence of Mr. Ochei and his company then was that it had placed order for equipment and components of the plant and would take some time before the placements were received.

But several months after that explanation, the site at Oghara, remains overgrown with weed implying that the equipment are yet to arrive the shores of the country and that the explanation then was a hoax to keep prying eyes away. The current situation has sparked fresh concerns by citizens of the Delta State some of whom in protest, freshly alerted anti-graft agencies including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of the alleged scam and called for a probe of the project into which billions of state funds have been sunk.

When LegisReports contacted the EFCC spokesman, Mr. Wilson Uwajaren, on this story, he did not deny that the commission is looking into the IPP sleaze although he was not forthcoming with details. When pressed further, he promised to check for details and revert with his findings. He had not done so as at press time.

Contacted on this story, Mr. Ochei, who only days ago lavishly marked his 44th birthday anniversary as part of preparations for his presumed 2015 gubernatorial ambition, barely stopped short of blaming the governor of the state for the non-take-off of the IPP. An agitated Ochei admitted that his company was awarded the project but declined to provide any clarification on the extent of work done. “Go ask the state government” he said brashly when pressed further by our reporter before he hung up the phone.

Inside sources conversant with the workings of the state government told LegisReports that Mr. Ochei’s reference to the state government is actually a subtle way of blaming Governor Uduaghan who is known to have tightly held on to state funds and denied payments to contractors for work done and withheld funding for approved projects.

LegisReports recalls that Ochei had in October 2011 led his colleagues at the Delta State House of Assembly on a protest against abandoned projects in the state and suspended sitting of the assembly until contractors were mobilized to site.

Mr. Ochei has been a big beneficiary of patronage doled out by the Uduaghan administration including street light projects in Asaba, the state capital. He is said to have been introduced into contracting in the state by wife of the convicted Ibori when the later ruled the state as governor between 1999 and 2007. And since then, Ochei is believed to have amassed a huge financial war chest that has buoyed his ambition to succeed Governor Uduaghan in 2015.

The EFCC has been on the case of some top government officials in Delta State in matters allegedly involving economic crimes and embezzlement of public funds. LegisReports had several weeks ago reported how operatives of the anti-graft body had quizzed some members of the Delta State House of Assembly on failed contracts and diversion of public funds involving the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC).